Huntsville Restaurant Week

This week is Huntsville Restaurant Week 2015. For 10 days, participating restaurants have fixed price menu specials for lunch and/or dinner. Lunch specials are $5, $10 or $15 and include a main course with an appetizer or dessert. The dinner specials run $10, $20 or $30 and include an appetizer, main course and a dessert. With more than 60 business participating, you are sure to find something for everyone.

We decided to venture out for BBQ. There are several BBQ restaurants participating including Lawlers and New Market BBQ. Since Lawlers is closer to our house, we headed to Lawlers for their restaurant week special – a pork plate with two sides, large drink and pecan or chocolate pie for $10.

Huntsville has also seen a marked increase in food trucks. Many years ago, food trucks were not seen as a source of gourmet or cutting edge food – they were more for basic, cheap lunch food. Places like Portland Oregon have institutionalized food trucks by creating “pods” or permanent places for food trucks to park. The new crop of Huntsville food trucks has brought an amazing array of new dining options. To feature them, Huntsville has had a number of food truck events downtown and Redstone Arsenal has a location for food trucks to serve lunch everyday.

Saturday also marked the grand opening of Pinhook Provisions Street Food Park on Bob Wallace. Pinhook Provisions has set up a location for food trucks to park on a regular basis, similar to the pods in Portland. During the week, Pinhook will have 5-6 trucks available for breakfast from 7-10 and lunch from 10:30-2:30. Pinhook provides a “canteen” inside with seating and restrooms.

Since we had been to Lawlers for lunch, we decided to head to Pinhook for dinner. We arrived about 6:30PM and many of the trucks had already departed. We were told the crowds at lunch time had been very large and many of the trucks sold out of food. We ended up with a Connecticut Lobster Roll from Rollin’ Lobstah and a lamb sandwich and chicken tacos from the Hot Box. While not technically part of Huntsville Restaurant Week, we enjoyed trying some new dishes from these food trucks.